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Tuesday, March 16, 2021

In The Trenches with Uncle Pete

Benjamin Horner


 In the summer of 2011, I attended the first Cannabis Camp hosted by Peter O’Toole (known by his friends as Uncle Pete) in the woods of a private campground close to Houghton Lake, Michigan.  This was just a few months after we started the Michigan Medical Marijuana Report (now just the Michigan Marijuana Report). Having opened Flint’s first medical marijuana dispensary, I was learning about all the great medicinal values of cannabis. Meeting Uncle Pete that weekend in northern Michigan changed my life. I went back to Houghton lake to check on the O’Tooles and see what Pete and his family are up to.


At that first Cannabis Camp, shortly after pitching up my tent, Peter O’Toole came out of his humble camper trailer on the far end of the camp to greet me with a big fat joint in his hand and the magic began. There were plenty of sick people lined up to see Uncle Pete. Back then growers in Michigan were just learning and most pot was still being imported. O’Toole was more advanced than most growers, but more importantly he also had been working directly to help patients find medical marijuana treatments for specific medical conditions.  It was there that I learned how to make cannabis oil, aka RSO, from Uncle Pete. With his permission we printed the story which gave full instructions on how to make the oil. 

Uncle Pete is a true believer of cannabis oil as a medicine for cancer and a large variety of other conditions. Treating his own liver cancer successfully was the proof he needed. Same thing with Joe Crow, a friend of Pete’s that suffered from a large tumor on his neck that shrunk while using the oil, who taught Pete how to extract medicinal cannabinoids. Then there was Amy Joe, who had a brain tumor and was in a wheelchair from a tragic accident, who came back to camp after three weeks of being on the oil out of the wheelchair and walking. Feeling blessed, Pete decided that he should share what he learned with as many people as he could.  And he did, making videos of how to grow, how to make RSO and edibles and kept working with marijuana patients, sharing their testimonies. 


“Since I’ve been taking oil my life has done a full 180°. My New Life started the day he believed in his product to save my life. My tumor is shrinking. Something the doctors never want to believe, they push chemo and pharma meds to do nothing but leave you to fight a battle the odds are against you in. Thanks Pete for letting the odds be in our favor. Much love from the Detmer Family.” -A testimony by Michael Detmer and his recent experience working with Uncle Pete. O’Toole went on with countless more stories, too many to document here.

Another example was a three year old boy with horrible eczema that had burns all over his body from chemical peels. Pete found an original manual on dermatology from 1917 that listed strong cannabis oil as the cure and for Eli and it worked. Everyone was amazed and the mom shared the miraculous information online. Soon CPS was at her door. Pete called Komorn Law, one of the first law firms in the state specializing in protecting the rights of medical marijuana patients.  

Michael Komorn and Peter O’Toole became unlikely friends after fighting the criminal justice system, a system that targeted the O’Tooles, and the medical marijuana patients and caregivers that they were working with. Between 2010 and 2016 Peter’s home, and other places where he made cannabis for patients, were raided by the state and local police, temporarily upending his work and the supply of medicine for his patients.

“In my darkest hours after each raid there was only one person I could count on to help us. The only person I could trust to call was Michael Komorn. Komorn and I realized that we come from two different worlds that crossed paths only because of medical marijuana.”

“Komorn exclaimed we are trench buddies!” explained O’Toole passionately, referring to people who fought together in the trenches during wartime. “Thats where the name for the trench buddy strain came from, which is dedicated to Michael for all that he did for me.”

The Trench Buddy seeds are available exclusively through Uncle Pete’s newest venture to share cannabis with the world, the Michigan Marijuana Seed Club. Good genetics is the first step of good medical marijuana. On the clubs website is a huge selection of seeds. Feminized, Izzy’s auto-flower, CBD and straight up F1 crosses are available to everyone thanks to the close knit group working with the O’Toole family.  

Everyone can learn a thing or two about cannabis, and Peter O’Toole is the most advanced in his field of medical marijuana in Michigan. You just cannot buy that from a dispensary. 


In the conclusion of the interview I asked Uncle Pete if he could do it all over again, would he have tried to avoid all the raids by doing things differently. His answer, “If I could do it all again... I would do it harder. After the raids, the trauma was hard on me and my family, but my publicity only got the word out farther, drawing attention to the miracles of marijuana. I have no fear now and I am dedicated to the power of this plant. It is a gift for everyone!” 


John Sinclair - Free the Weed #117 - March 2021


A Column by John Sinclair


 I would like to approach the question of attempting to establish a new revolutionary cultural movement by looking at the failure of our previous attempt in the 1960s & ‘70s to achieve ultimate success.

My first caveat would be to jettison the concept of a “counterculture” or similar sort of oppositional movement aimed at the dominant capitalistic culture that oppresses us.

In my experience, the “counter culture” is a social phenomenon that sells a watered down version of our revolutionary culture to consumers across the counter: tattoos, ripped jeans, clothing with holes built in, music which is carefully constructed to sound like the freely expressive music we create within our cultural movement.

What is required of us is not a ‘counter culture” but a new, revolutionary culture based in art and social equality, a culture which is shared freely by humans wherever they may be situated, a culture which is predicated on securing freedom and equality for all the people of earth.

This is not a “counter culture” but a liberated culture, a culture of liberation that has a space for everyone irrespective of their occupation, income or lack of funds.

We don’t need a stinking counter across which we can sell the products of our imagination to those whose imagination is more limited. What we need is to turn everyone on to the creative outlook and the capacity for every human to generate and practice cultural forms that are indigenous to our circumstances and freely available to all.

To generate ideas and art forms is not predicated on how much money one has or one’s access to the marketplace of goods and services. Generation and transmission of art and cultural forms is up to each individual artist and cultural practitioner and is not a function of the market or the marketplace.

In the early days of our culture, in the 1960s, our culture evolved because we were looking for new ways to think, act, create and live.The ideas and paths to art and culture emanated from within ourselves, and we struggled to keep up with them in our daily lives.

Inspired by the handful of black musicians who had created and developed bebop as an expressive art form, and by the handful of poets and writers who tried to emulate them in the world of words, we strove mightily to understand what was being said and how it was being said.

Our numbers were few and we passed on our limited knowledge,smoldering excitement and relentless curiosity from one person to another, often shared along with a little joint of marijuana to inflame our burgeoning consciousness even more. The weed put us in line with great American thinkers and creators like Louis Armstrong, Mezz Mezzrow, Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Charlie Parker, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Herbert Huncke.

We wanted to be like them. We wanted to think new thoughts, create new artworks and art forms, share them with our friends and newly-found colleagues and make life as interesting as it appeared to us in the works of our idols.

We wanted nothing to do with the world of commerce or the endless stream of products it had prepared for us. We wanted to publish our works but were happy to print them ourselves without the benefit of advances, distribution or reviews. We wanted to make recordings of our music but only if they reflected our deepest artistic desires, and we didn’t care if they made the top 40 or were played on the radio at all. 

Our community of artists and seekers grew slowly but surely to include more and more young people looking for a way out of the stasis of American life. Not only marijuana but LSD and other  psychedelic substances helped lead the way to new land for all of us, and we worked hard to embrace the insights and new directions proposed by our psychedelic drug use.

But nothing was more important than the music which moved us along the new directions that had been revealed to us. Creative music was at the very center of our lives, and we accepted it as a source of inspiration and intellectual guidance without equal.

New musical forms inspired by American roots music—blues and jazz and gospel—became the stuff of everyday life, developed in hidden garages and practice rooms and spread through concerts and dances at abandoned or seriously underused venues like the Avalon and Fillmore Ballrooms in San Francisco, the Village Theatre in New York City, the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. and the Electric Ballroom in Chicago.

Supporting the music and illuminating the venues of the day were what became hundreds of what we called underground newspapers—hastily typeset and pasted up tabloid publications that reflected what was going on in the cities where they were published. 

The five original underground papers that emerged in 1964-65—the Los Angeles Free Press, the East Village Other in New York City, the Fifth Estate in Detroit, the Berkeley Barb, and the East Lansing Paper—were quickly joined by outstanding exemplars of underground journalism like the Chicago Seed, the Ann Arbor Argus,The San Francisco Oracle, The Rag(Austin, Texas), and the Illustrated Paper (Mendocino, California), and membership kept growing for several years.

A 1971 roster, published by Abbie Hoffman in Steal This Book, listed 271 UPS-affiliated papers in the United States, Canada, and Europe. According to historian John McMillian (Smoking Typewriters, 2010), the underground press’ combined readership eventually reached into the millions.

Bob “Righteous” Rudnick, a journalist and underground radio disc jockey, soon founded the Underground Press Syndicate to coordinate the burgeoning movement as new papers continued to be founded and immediately joined the UPS.

A group of east coast journalists led by Marshall Bloom and Ray Mungo formed a group called Liberation News Service (LNS) to serve the Underground Press Syndicate as sort of a UPI outfit feeding news and information to all the underground papers.

While we didn’t have our own recording companies, our musicians and bands did well without them for several years from 1964-67 until “White Rabbit” by the Jefferson Airplane and “Light My Fire” by the doors hit the Top Ten in the “Summer of Love” in 1967. 

For the next two years the long-haired rock & roll bands took over the charts and the music business in general while operating in an outlaw system centered on the psychedelic ballrooms, free concerts in the parks and similar public events that utilized the power of the music and its practitioners to draw incredible crowds of people to our musical and other public events events protesting the war, racism, sexism, and the arrest and imprisonment of innocent drug users.

But even before the underground press and the long-haired rock & roll revolution our culture pulsated with the publication of thousands of small poetry books and independent literary magazines printed by fanatics all over the country and distributed in small independent bookstores and other public outlets.

Very little of this artistic activity was undertaken on a profit-seeking basis but rather was motivated by the desire for self-expression and soulful communication on the part of the poets, publishers, booksellers, musicians, ballroom operators and other champions of cultural expression and meaningful interaction between artists and their audiences.

A further revolution would follow in the form of living arrangements for the new cultural renegades. Driven together by the high cost of rental housing and the need to band together for security and group realization purposes, the new American youth masses huddled together in beat-up houses and rental units where their tiny money would get them a room and a share in the communal kitchen, practice rooms and social areas of the venerable housing that existed all around the college and university areas of the nation’s cities.

Slowly but surely the new American youth was taking over and reshaping the cultural mores and living situations of the country. It is important to remember in terms of our historical development and the prospects for future redevelopment that our movement started out very small and grew organically, person by person, until it was apparent that hundreds of thousands and then millions of people had opted for a new way of life supported by one another and open to the possibilities that presented themselves on a day to day basis.

To paraphrase the British mystic Alastair Crowley, under the new social movement everything was true and everything was permitted. The school system, the legal establishment, the workplace, all of these institutions were regarded as enemies of the emerging youth culture and at best to be avoided, at worst to be confronted and opposed as need be. 

The emerging police state was solidified around the cruel precepts of the War On Drugs without regard for the citizens’ constitutional rights, freedom of movement, nor heart-felt social practice. Billions of dollars were amassed by police departments of every stripe and the courts and prisons and probation and parole offices that supported their crusade to keep Americans addicted to alcohol and the practice of social drinking.

Our movement spread inexorably from households of four or five people to dance hall gatherings of 100, then 200, 400, 800, 1200 and 2000 people. Bands like the Grateful Dead, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Country Joe & The Fish, the Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, the MC-5 and scores more began to grow audiences from a handful of people to several thousand per night, all without the benefit of major record contracts, radio play, or mass media exposure and advertising.

After five fun-packed years of organic growth and a culture that grew joint by joint our culture reached a turning point that was dramatized by the crowd of 500,000 that turned out for the Woodstock festival which, multiplied by the audience for the mass-market movie produced from the event, ended the experimental, organic stage of our growth and accelerated our numbers into the millions.

Of course, at the same time, the impact, meaning and import of our movement was turned aside and replaced by the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption and the societal pressure on members of our movement to become more and more similar to one another and less and less defined by our differences from the mass culture of America. 

The concept of sharing and passing knowledge, information, and societal kicks from one person or small group to another had become obsolete, replaced by the pressure to consume the same things at the same time as everyone else. In short, our culture creativity and opposition had been replaced by the mass market culture that had conquered the rest of Ameirca long before our emergence as a temporary alternative.

We’ve been stuck in this awful rut since the ascendancy of Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and the future seems to hold more of the same for all of us. Imagination and creativity remain at an all-time premium, and social forces thrive by driving us closer and closer together as rabid consumers of whatever they might be trying to sell us at any given time.

If we have a chance to enjoy anything more diverse and inspirational than what we have now, it will have to be actualized by going back to the very small numbers we started with sixty years ago and creating something new and different that reflects our most burning cultural wants and desires of today. Nothing else will possibly do.


-Detroit
February 9-10, 2021
© 2021 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.

Friday, March 12, 2021

Tinfoil Hat time! March 2021

 



‘Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.’

– George Orwell, ‘1984'


In this new political climate of 2021 it is important that we all understand what the party expects.  Unity, for no other reason than unity itself, has been threatened by those who think outside party doctrine.  Those whose ideas threaten the very foundations of the party’s new order.

Individual liberty, and with it thought, action, speech and political opinion, have for far too long stood in the way of safeguarding the goals of the party.  Only with unified thought, which brings unified action, speech, and opinion, can the dream be made real.  Only in silencing dangerous dissent, by any means necessary, can the party secure the future and thus the future of mankind.  Therefore the party encourages everyone to become familiar with spotting sedition.

The party is hope.  The party is change.  The party is love.  The party is life. 

The party is the soul of America.

The only thing the party is not, is Tinfoil Hat Time!

That last statement is a direct example of sedition.  It should be known that the party is all things, and that nothing can be allowed to exist outside the party.  To even think any aspect of any thing can function outside the limits of party thinking, and without the blessing of the party, is exceptionally dangerous.

Blatant displays of sedition and violence against the party can not, and will not, be tolerated.  Violent rhetoric has no place in a peaceful world built on love.  Open acts of sedition, real or imagined, are a direct threat to order and without order the goals of the party can not come to fruition.  Examples include: speaking negatively about party doctrine and/or party members, exercising a fictitious right to the antiquated ideas known as the first and second amendments, and refusing to accept truths as handed down by party friendly for profit broadcast and media corporations.   Anyone engaging in such behavior must be punished.  Censorship should be utilized immediately, followed by termination.


Violent sedition?  While the image is graphic, and of a political nature, the head does not belong to a party member, which means this image is acceptable.  Don’t worry, in time the art of separating sedition from party propaganda will become second nature.


While this method of overt defiance may seem easy to spot, be warned, sedition comes in many forms.  Silence, and non-compliance, are often the most malicious of these shapes.  Examine the following image:



Silent sedition stands out in a crowd, but quietly rots from within when not detected soon enough.


Notice anything?  In direct defiance of unity a single man stands non-compliant.  Disdainfully questioning authority with the use of nothing but his face, his in-action, and his silence.  Choosing not to unify with the whole.  Choosing to disobey the clear order of things set down by the elected powers that be.

This covert act of sedition is much harder to detect.  Only by the grace of the crowd does this man stand out so obvious.  When alone, or in smaller groups, it becomes much harder to detect silent individual dissent.  The invisible tentacles of sedition worm their way into the heart and mind, encourage free thought, and challenge the official narrative.  This can not be allowed.  

You see, it is not enough to simply stand with the party.  One must be actively anti-non-party.  The party is morality, and justice, and the embodiment of love and kindness.  The party is the corporeal manifestation of ‘right’.  No doctrine outside the party can be ‘just’, or ‘moral’, or anything but ‘wrong’.  Only ignorance, lack of education, hate, or malice, can be responsible for those who hold non-party ideas.



Pro Tip: When routing sedition from your neighborhood be sure to check attics and basements.


It must become the sworn duty of all party members to defend the party from all domestic enemies.  Take care!  Non-party members come in all sizes and shapes.  All genders, all races, all backgrounds are susceptible to the dangers of non-party conspiracy theory.  Ignorance knows no financial status, or religion, either.  Meanwhile, the enemies of the party are many.  Some estimates place them at approximately 50%, or more, of the U.S. population.  Co-workers, friends, close family, even lovers may be guilty of silent sedition.  It is important to remember that closet sedition is no less dangerous, or immoral, than open flamboyant sedition.  All those who erroneously stand outside the borders of party thinking must be outed, and routed from soceity before irrepairable harm can be done.

On that note, it is important to devote some time to the topic of non-party members in power.  Despite the parties best efforts, not all positions of leadership have been filled with party members.  These rogue agents of chaos dare to use their position to echo the backward sentiments of their seditionist constituents, rather than governing responsibly and adhering to party doctrines and propaganda.  Such devious abuse of power can not stand, now more than ever.

The party expects, in the spirit of being actively anti-non-party, every member to aim their animosity at non-party members in power.  Give them no leeway, no slack.  Dehumanize them in every way.  They too must be outed, and more importantly, destroyed.  Leaving committee powers, or any act of governance, in the hands of seditionists will only legitimize their false positions and further threaten the stability of unity.

For future reference, it should be known that any vote cast for a non-party member can not be considered legitimate.  Only the party stands for peace and love.  Only the party uplifts the poor and downtrodden.  Only the party can be moral.  Only the party can keep us safe.  Immorality, greed, hate and ignorance have no place in a forward thinking system of government, and therefore have no place as motivators when choosing elected officials.  

By learning to spot sedition in all it’s many forms, knowing how to react, and staying vigilant, the party will prevail.  This new world of truth, love, and unity, will not permit individual liberty to once again delay the future.  Rest assured this social revolution has just begun and by correcting for the past, while securing the present, the party will safeguard its future.

Michigan News - March 2021

 


Michigan Medical MJ Cardholders Can Now Smoke on Probation


Michgian - In a recent Michigan Court of Appeals published decision, the courts rendered a final
decision as to whether a medical marijuana patient can continue to use cannabis while on probation. Since the passing of the MMMA in 2008, disputes of whether a probationer could use pot if they had a card had been arbitrarily decided by the sentencing judge and the probation officer. This confusion is now cleared thanks to the bravery of Micheal Thue of Center of Compassion in Traverse City, with the help of Komorn Law, who fought for and won Thue’s case in the court of appeals. Attorneys Allen Peisner, Legal scholar, and Alyssa McCormick, drafter of the brief for the case, who work for the Komorn Law Firm, explained how Micheal Komorn “set-up the pins” for the team’s victory. Now everyone on probation with a legitimate medical marijuana card should be able to give the probation department the finger and light up. When asked about whether the prongs of establishing a bona-fide patient doctor relationship will be further tested, the godfather of cannabis law reform Tim Beck said, “ I doubt it. If a probation officer wants to find a way to further punish someone under their supervision they will just find another way. I think this case is closed”



2021 Cannabis Law Firm of the Year Award: Komorn Law



Michigan Marijuana Report recognizes Komorn law for their profound impact on cannabis law reform through the court system, and their dedication. Komorn law specializes in criminal defense and cannabis business services. 







Flushing Township Aims at Crime, Hits Caregiver Rights


Flushing - Local politicians in Flushing are proposing changes to law that seek to placefurther restrictions on growers.  Citing crime, and a specific incident involving shots fired, the township board claims these new changes are designed to prevent theft of outdoor grows.  Changes include requiring a lot size of five acres, mandatory odor, smoke, and noise reduction equipment, no grows to be within 50 feet of a property line, and requiring the grower to live on the property.

Clio Cultivation owner Buddy Dalton, who has spearheaded the effort to prevent these laws from passing, spoke at length with the board.  He informed the MM Report that after his conversation he believes there is a way to help mitigate crime related to outdoor grows without taking such extreme measures, as long as the board is willing to listen to the people.  


To participate in the upcoming meeting on March 11th at 7:00 pm, use Zoom meeting ID: 84604022203 Password: 150294



Sam Pernick the Man of Mystery Connected to 18 Petition Drives in MI


Michigan - Not new to the scene, Sam Pernick, aka Pernick the Progressive, made the news last month for being the treasurer of multiple local ballot initiatives, designed to allow these local communities to “opt-in” for marijuana facilities. In order for a state licensed marijuana facility, like a grow, dispensary, or a processing center can operate the municipality must pass an ordinance which usually also requires a zoning ordinance. Sam Pernick has worked on several campaigns including MI Legalize 2017, Danna Nessel 2018, Lorrenes 2014, Kumar 2016. 

Pernick explains, “There are lots of people that wanted it in their community. We had some volunteers. We are looking at doing more. These citizen initiatives are being treated poorly by the municipalities, clerks and judges who didn’t cooperate with the will of the people. Some people are more concerned with technical issues, then what the people want. City attorneys get paid lots of money to keep these off the ballot.” 

The “opt-in” petitions were successful at getting three initiatives on the ballot and passed last November, a difficult feat, and an impressive effort by Pernick, placing him in the elite club of successful cannabis law reformers. 



Detroit Legacy Program Challenged as Unconstitutional


Detroit - Crystal Lowe, a Detroit resident for 11 years, filed a lawsuit claiming Detroits’ licensing scheme is unconstitutional, and unfair.  

“Because Defendant has decided to cap the number of licenses available for adult-use retail establishments, it has set up a competitive licensing scheme… unlike any other in the state.” this according to her attorney.  Detroit will only allow 75 licenses, with no less than 50% being awarded to Detroit legacy qualifiers.  However, Detroit Legacy applicants can exceed 50% of the total.  The brief continues, “It further provides that City shall not issue a license for an adult-use legal establishment if such issuance would cause the number of licenses held by Detroit legacy licensees to be less than 50% of the total licenses for this category.  Thus, Detroit legacy applicants can compete for 75 licenses, whereas applicants without Detroit legacy status can only compete for a potential maximum of 37 licenses, a number that will shrink depending on how many Detroit legacy applicants succeed in obtaining licenses.”

Detroit legacy applicants were given a six week window to apply, ending March 12th, and were required to submit forms to the Office of Civil Rights, Inclusion, and Opportunity.  So far 180 certifications have been issued.  They also receive a 99% discount on licensing in year one, and 75% in 2022, as well as a 75% discount on city-owned land.  The review process will begin for legacy applicants on May 1, pre-existing license holders on June 16, and all others on Aug 1.

Because Lowe lived in River Rouge for a time, and then Georgia for a time, she only has 11 consecutive years in Detroit, and therefore is excluded from being a Detroit legacy applicant.  Her case contends that the program violates a commerce clause in the U.S. Consititution.  She believes there is no chance of her receiving a license, with 180+ applicants being reviewed months before her application.  

The ordinance in Detroit was written so that if any aspect is removed the entire ordinance is revoked.  If it is ruled unconstitutional in any way, no licenses will be issued in Detroit.  Whether or not this ‘my unconstitutional way or the highway for everyone’ form of governing will win out over the U.S. Constitution remains to be seen, but this case could have huge implications for the future of the marijuana industry in Detroit. 





National News - March 2021

 



Schumer Commits to Pot Reform, Pot Stocks Go Up

Washington, DC - Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senators Ron Wyden and Cory Booker, announced their intentions to make marijuana reform a primary focus.  “The War on Drugs has been a war on people - particularly people of color.  Ending the federal marijuana prohibition is necessary to right the wrongs of this failed war and end decades of harm inflicted on communities of color across the country.  But that alone is not enough. As states continue to legalize marijuana, we must also enact measures that will lift up people who were unfairly targeted in the War on Drugs.”  The trio pledged to present legislation within the coming weeks.

Following the statement, marijuana stocks saw an overall uptick, further increasing value above the initial increase due to the new administration.

With the removal of Mitch McConnel as Senate Majority Leader the odds of the bill passing are much more hopeful.  Jeffries analyst Owen Bennett was quoted by Market Watch as saying, “With cannabis legalization having overwhelming public bipartisan support, many Republican states already legalizing cannabis, potential tax revenue, and Schumer last week saying the newly planned bill already has support from ‘some Republicans’, we think (there’s) a strong chance of (it) advancing to Biden’s desk.” 


Big International Players Form U.S. Cannabis Council


United States - A global list of industry players have created the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC).  Citing the urgency for a unified front in the fight for marijuana reform, and timed with the Senate announcement, the councils website states it’s mission as being, “..to build a future of legal access to cannabis delivered through an equitable and values-driven industry by advancing cannabis legalization at the federal and state level, and promoting restorative justice for communities harmed by cannabis prohibition.”  According to USCC CEO Steven Hawkins, “USCC is a unified voice advocating for the descheduling and legalization of cannabis.”

The founding members include a laundry list of organizations formed by big business, and big businesses, some of whom are not even based in the United States, such as: The American Trade Association For Cannabis and Hemp (ATACH), the Marijuana Policy Project, the Cannabis Trade Federation, the Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce, Acreage Holdings, Canopy Growth, Columbia Care, Cresco Labs, Curaleaf, iAnthus Capital Holdings, Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, PharmaCann, Cannabis Voter Project, CanCore Concepts, Flowhub, Husch Blackwell, Jushi, PAX, WANA, Schwazze, Organa Brands, The Association for Cannabis Health Equity and Medicine, Cronos Group, 1906 New Heights, and Medmen, just to name a few. (full list can be seen at https://www.uscannabiscouncil.org/members).  

Americans for Safe Access, Drug Policy Alliance, Minority Cannabis Business Association, National Cannabis Industry Association, National Cannabis Roundtable, and NORML were not among the list of founders.  

Thursday, March 4, 2021

World News - March 2021

 


Canada's Cronos Group Reports $111.7M Loss

Toronto, Canada - Cronos Group, a Canadian cannabis company, and one of the founding members of the U.S. Cannabis Council, ended quarter four of 2020 with a $111.7 million loss.  Bringing their Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) to a total loss of negative $53.1 million for the year.  Despite this, the Toronto based company boasted late February of having $1.1 billion at hand.

CEO Kurt Schmidt has stated that the company created a team to analyze opportunities and potential strategies in the U.S. market, and that they plan on changing their focus.

According to Schmidt, “Cronos is prioritizing rare cannabinoids, such as CBG, over common ones, such as THC and CBD, and plans to (initiate) commercial production and subsequent product launches based on this approach.”  The CEO believes Canada to be an important platform for development of products, before taking them into other markets such as Israel and the United States.


Tilray Down $271 Million for the Year Amid Merger


Cananda - British Columbia based Tilray, in the process of merging with Ontario based company Aphria, reports it’s 2020 earnings at a loss of $271 million.  This number is up from 2019 when the company lost $321 million.  Mid February Tilray reported cash assets of $261.3 million.

The Aphria and Tilray merger is planned to close in the second quarter of 2021, at which point the resultant entity will become the largest marijuana company on the planet.  CEO Brendan Kennedy told analysts, “Scale matters, in both Canada and beyond.  The combined company will be the largest global cannabis company based on pro forma revenue, with scale and breadth across geographies and a complete portfolio of market-leading brands in all major cannabis categories.  We are in the early stages of the continued development and expansion of the global cannabis market.”

The final deal was announced mid December, with an equity split of 62% for Aphria and 38% for Tilray.  The new entity will have an estimated value of CA$5 Billion / US$3.9 Billion.


Mexico Medical Programs Poised After Three Years


Mexico - Mexico is almost ready to begin licensing for medical marijuana.  Three years after the 2017 medical bill passed the Mexican government has finally provided regulations, although they are reported as vague, and still requiring tweaks.

Some hi-lights of the Jan 12th ,2021 rules for implementing the law include: all cannabis products (including hemp with up to 1% THC) is required to go through clinical trials before sales, imports are limited to finished goods, cultivation licenses can only be used in the state listed and require proof of ownership of the land, cultivation on an industrial scale is only allowed for medical marijuana, and only pharmaceutical companies will be permitted to import cannabis products.